Source: Edmontonsun.comBy Kate Schwass-BueckertSnakes and exotic pets dominated headlines in 2013, particularly in August after two young brothers died when an African rock python escaped its enclosure and suffocated them as they slept. Bry Loyst, curator of the Indian River Reptile Zoo near Peterborough, Ont., said at the time the snake must have been confused when it encountered four-year-old Noah Barthe and his brother Connor, 6. The two boys had been at a petting zoo earlier in the day, and may have still smelled like the animals, which is likely why the snake decided to constrict the two boys while they slept. "Potentially dangerous animals of any kind — whether it be tigers, lions, bears, cobras, rattlesnakes, large pythons — shouldn't be kept in a private residence," Loyst said. "This was an accident waiting to happen." Since then, authorities have been removing illegal or mistreated snakes, alligators and other exotic animals from homes across the country, and the federal government, provincial leaders and municipalities are all looking at new regulations to protect animals and keep residents safe. Ontario has asked for at least 36 separate studies looking into the issue, while in December, the New Brunswick government passed a motion by the Opposition Liberals calling for a complete review of the province's Fish and Wildlife Act, which oversees exotic animals. "Other jurisdictions are looking at New Brunswick for leadership on this file," Liberal MLA Donald Arseneault said in a statement about the motion he proposed. "This file has no politics, it is just the right thing to do." --- --- --TIMELINEMore....

Source: WVdnr.govPress ReleaseDavid C. Matton, a resident of Windsor, Ontario, paid more than $2,200 in fines after being charged by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Environment Canada for violations of regulations protecting turtles. Matton purchased wood turtles in West Virginia and transported them in foreign commerce in violation of the Lacey Act. In addition, he exported turtles into Canada without the necessary declarations and Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) permits. The investigation was conducted by the Service Office of Law Enforcement in conjunction with the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Section, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, and Environment Canada. The investigation took place from 2009 to 2013, and the U.S. fines were paid in November 2013. Wood turtles occur in West Virginia and the northeastern United States and there is concern about them among wildlife biologists due to population declines. Wood turtles are listed as Appendix II to CITES and are considered Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Investigators determined that Matton had traveled to West Virginia and other states where he unlawfully captured turtles from the wild, including box turtles and a gopher tortoise, for his personal collection. Matton also unlawfully purchased wood turtles from a covert agent and transported them back to Ontario. During the investigation, Matton told a covert agent he had captured 15 box turtles in two hours in the state of Indiana. Environment Canada is considering additional charges regarding Matton’s alleged unlawful activities. The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources has established reptile and amphibian regulations that make it unlawful to possess certain reptiles and amphibians and places restrictions on the transportation of the more common reptiles and amphibians and also the taking and possession of reptiles and amphibians by non-residents of West Virginia.

Source: Hamiltonnews.comBy Richard LeitnerThe Hamilton Conservation Authority is promising to put up no-hunting signs at main entrances to Iroquoia Heights and keep a closer eye on the area in response to worries that people may be poaching deer there. Janice Wilson said she and her friends are frequents visitors to the west Mountain conservation area and first became concerned about illegal hunting when they discovered a “well-constructed” deer blind there in mid-October. They found other signs of hunting, she said, including a campsite by a deer passageway underneath Highway 403 that had been marked with phosphorescent ribbons, which she and her friends removed. Wilson said a recent clearing of brush by hydro lines by Scenic Drive has also created an easy access to the area and she’s been told a truck has driven in there at night, with two hunters using the vehicle’s roof as a perch to shoot at deer. She said she’s heard gun shots at night and fears deer don’t have much of a chance against poachers because they’ve become so tame they will accept an apple from an outreached hand. “I know deer are considered a natural resource, but I find it a great injustice when hunters can come in and kill these animals that we really love,” Wilson told authority directors in a presentation. “I have seen in the daytime hunters in there. They don’t seem to be concerned if you see them or not, unless you pull out your cell phone. But most of the hunting that’s happening in there is happening at night.” Chief administrative officer Chris Firth Eagland said staff immediately investigated the reported poaching and didn’t find any empty shotgun shell casings or other evidence of hunting, but the authority isn’t taking any chances. There have been periodic instances of poaching at Iroquoia Heights in the past, although in some cases people mistake forts made by kids for blinds hunters use to hide from their prey, the latter of which are usually up in a tree, he said. Some of the evidence provided by Wilson, including some empty gun packaging, night goggles and a shot-up beer can, might be from BB guns, he said, noting the ammunition didn’t penetrate the beer can. “We do respect and take seriously comments from her and her friends, and are going to strongly consider that poaching could have been taking place and may in the future,” Firth-Eagland said. “So we’ll ensure the signage goes up and will keep a close watch on the property,” he said, encouraging the public to continue to report any suspected poaching and other illicit activity, like bush parties. More....

Source: Therecord.comBy Greg Mercer Deb Swidrovich and her husband have long tried to stop illegal poaching in their backyard and on the surrounding rural lands in this quiet corner of Waterloo. But recently, that ongoing dispute took a gruesome twist. On Thursday, Swidrovich found two severed deer heads stuck up on display near her home on Wilmot Line. One was strapped to the top of a fence post, the other placed on a tree right at the edge of Conservation Drive — both within the City of Waterloo boundary where bow and rifle hunting are strictly prohibited. Their antlers had been removed and, in one case, an electrical cord was used to fasten the head to the fence post. Swidrovich thinks the deer heads were put there by someone retaliating for calls to the police against hunters in the area earlier this month. "I think they're trying to send a message," she said. "They're saying 'we're not going anywhere.' They're blatantly showing their kill." Swidrovich hopes by going public she can draw attention to a poaching problem she says is commonplace in this rural, northwestern corner of Waterloo. She wants anyone with information about the poaching problem to call police and the Ministry of Natural Resources. While hunting is permitted on the western side of Wilmot Line, in the township, it's not allowed on the eastern side, which is within city limits. Anyone caught discharging a firearm or bow within the City of Waterloo can draw criminal charges and municipal bylaw fines of up to $5,000. More....

Source: Ottawacitizen.comBy Robert SibleyOn an August day three years ago, a dozen or so law enforcement officers — Environment Canada agents, RCMP, Border Security services, Fish and Wildlife staff among them — waited patiently while a small boat motored across the St. Lawrence River from the Akwesasne Reservation on the United States side of the border to land on the Cornwall side.They waited as the man in the boat gave three crates to another man who had been waiting for him. They waited as the second man loaded the crates into his truck. And that’s when waiting came to an end.The results of that long wait came to a conclusion in a Cornwall court late last week when a judge sentenced a Cobden man, Dennis Day, to a 90-day jail sentence and slapped him with the $50,000 fine. Day, in his 40s, had pleaded guilty in July to two counts of illegally importing reptiles into Canada. A few months earlier, in March, he’d been convicted under the Customs Act of smuggling, keeping, acquiring and disposing of illegally imported goods. (The man who operated the boat was charged and convicted by American authorities.)Tuesday’s sentencing was the culmination of a lengthy investigation into a growing problem — the smuggling of reptiles, birds, animals, and plants, many of them rare and endangered, both from and to Canada — that has law enforcement agencies scrambling to keep up with increasingly sophisticated smugglers who cater to those who think they need to own an exotic species. And some are prepared to pay a steep price to satisfy their fetish for the exotic.“There’s the illegal drug trade, illegal immigration, illegal weapons trade; wildlife is up there,” says Martin Thabault, operations manager for wildlife enforcement in Ontario who’s been involved in the Day case. “There’s a lot of money to be made. We’re talking about plants, lumber. Or it could be rhino horn, exotic leathers, exotic pets. It’s pretty widespread.Thabault and his colleagues hope the sentence meted out to Day sends a message of deterrence.“We’ve had similar files in the past (but) this was probably one of the more important cases in recent history,” he says.Part of the problem they face — at least this as been the case in the past — is how seriously prosecutors and judges take the crime in terms of imposing stiff fines and jail terms. More....

Source: EC.gc.caPress ReleaseDennis Day of Cobden, Ontario, was sentenced on November 5 in the Ontario Court of Justice after pleading guilty on July 23, 2013 to two counts of violating federal laws regulating the import of reptiles. Mr. Day was sentenced to a 90 day jail term to be served on weekends, and ordered to pay $50,000 to the Environmental Damages Fund. The court also imposed a three year probation in which Mr. Day is prohibited from possessing any listed species of wildlife except in accordance with the provisions of the Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and interprovincial Trade Act (WAPPRIITA) and the regulations thereunder.On August 4, 2010, a joint operation by Environment Canada, the Canada Border Services Agency, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and the United States Customs and Border Protection found Mr. Day to be in possession of three containers of reptiles that were smuggled into Canada near Cornwall, Ontario by a vessel originating from the United States. Inspection of the containers revealed a number of reptiles that are prohibited in Canada for health and safety reasons and others that are illegal to import into Canada without a permit.Officers seized 205 animals including 20 Chinese striped turtles or goldenthreads, 20 African side neck turtles, 20 South American red-footed tortoises, 1 Herman's tortoise, 1 Serrated hinge back tortoise, 8 African spurred tortoises, 25 Timor monitors, 20 Green iguanas, 51 Jackson's chameleons and 39 Helmeted chameleons. The estimated retail value of these animals is approximately $50,000.Mr. Day was convicted under WAPPRIITA for importing animals without a permit and making false or misleading statements to an officer.Mr. Day was also charged by the Canada Border Services Agency and convicted on March 14, 2013, of smuggling, keeping, acquiring, and disposing of goods illegally imported under the Customs Act. Mr. Day received an additional 90 day jail sentence to be served on weekends, and the reptiles were ordered to be forfeited to the Crown.As a result of the evidence obtained during the Day investigation, another accused, Mr. Mark Ostroff, was convicted in the Ontario Court of Justice in Cornwall, Ontario on December 14, 2012, after pleading guilty to one count of unlawfully importing animals in violation of the WAPPRIITA. Mr. Ostroff was fined $40,000 and sentenced to three years probation. More....

The deaths of two New Brunswick boys killed by a massive python last summer have prompted Atlantic Canada mayors to call for a task force on the private ownership of exotic animals. The region's top civic leaders passed a resolution at their Atlantic Mayors Congress in Sydney, N.S., last week, CBC News reports. "It was an opportune time to do this, knowing full well what has taken place in Campbellton and hopefully we are going to be able to put safeguards in place with our governments so that's never going to happen again," Campbellton Mayor Bruce MacIntosh told CBC News. But is a task force really necessary? What would it add to what's already known about the issues around people keeping everything from giant snakes to tigers and monkeys as pets?The deaths last August of six-year-old Connor Barthe and his four-year-old brother Noah shocked the entire country. The boys were attending a sleepover at a friend's home, an apartment above a pet store. The 4.3-metre African rock python weighing 45 kilograms escaped its enclosure in the apartment and crawled into the ceiling ventilation system, then fell through into the room where the children were sleeping. An autopsy showed the boys died of asphyxiation, though it was not made clear whether the snake strangled them or they were crushed under its weight. The python was euthanized. The RCMP opened an investigation into the deaths but CBC News said no charges have been laid. More....

The St. Lawrence River Institute hosts its monthly Science & Nature Series at the Cornwall Public Library with a presentation on American Eels.

The presentation Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. will be led by scientist Matt Windle and focus on the American Eel and his research into this unique species on the St. Lawrence River. The American eel is the only freshwater eel species found in Canada. Historically it was one of the most abundant and important members of the near shore fish community in the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario watersheds. No longer, since the 1980s, the Ontario population of American eels has declined sharply, and they are currently listed as endangered under Ontario Endangered Species Act. The average number of eels migrating up the St. Lawrence River near Cornwall decreased from 25,000 per day in the 1980s to roughly 230 per day in 2005. All native eels in Ontario are female, living in freshwater habitats for most of their lives before migrating to the ocean to spawn and die. As such, they are vulnerable to habitat loss from barriers and hydroelectric dams that block their migrations, as well as from exploitation from the global commercial fishery. More....

A Thunder Bay man says poachers are killing deer on Mission Island and believes the herd is in trouble as a result. Robert McCallum said just three years ago, he fed up to 80 deer daily at his home on Mission Island.The man known as Thunder Bay’s “Deer Whisperer” said he continues to feed the animals, despite a city ban on the activity. But McCallum said the number of deer coming to eat in his backyard has plummeted. “Two years ago there were 17 big bucks, and I'd say 65 deer,” he said. “Last year, there were only three big bucks and maybe 40 deer. This year there is one big buck, and maybe 25 deer. That is it.” McCallum said cold weather last winter may have been a factor, but he believes the real problem is poaching. “I have found [deer with\ arrows in them … The year before, I found five or six [deer\ with arrows in them.”McCallum said he often sees vehicles parked near his home at night with their lights off. More....

Environmental groups are suing the Ontario government for its decision to exempt major threats to species at risk from the province’s Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Ecojustice lawyers, acting on behalf of Ontario Nature and Wildlands League, have filed a lawsuit in Divisional Court alleging that the Ontario government acted unlawfully by making a regulation that undermines the ESA.

Ontario Regulation 176/13, which came into force under the ESA on July 1, 2013, is a tremendous blow to species protection.

The new regulatory changes harm species by allowing major industries - including forestry, energy transmission, housing, oil and gas pipelines, mineral exploration and mine development, transit, wastewater management companies - to avoid strict standards intended to protect at-risk species and their habitats.

“With this regulation, the Ontario government has failed to deliver on its promise to defend endangered species and undermined the role of the legislature by amending the Act through regulation,” said Anastasia Lintner, staff lawyer for Ecojustice. “The best way to safeguard at-risk species is to enforce the ESA as intended.”

The lawsuit is based on two main grounds:

1. The regulatory exemptions undermine the ESA’s very purposes, which are “to protect species that are at risk and their habitats, and to promote the recovery of species at risk.” 2. The Minister of Natural Resources, David Orazietti, failed to consider the impacts of the regulations on each of the 155 species listed under the Act as either endangered or threatened before recommending that the regulations be made by Cabinet. More....

A local fishing club representative is trying to prevent a reoccurrence of fish poaching in the coming weeks. At stake is the St. Lawrence River population of chinook salmon, a species that only fairly recently took hold downstream of the Moses-Saunders Dam. Cornwall Lunker Club chair Adam Lauzon said illegal fishing has taken place at the Rotary Eco Park creek that flows a short distance from the old Cornwall Canal through the Eco Park (west side of Lamoureux Park) and into the river. “Some guys are going clubbing and netting (the salmon, which can weigh 20 pounds or more),” Lauzon said, of the circumstances which can badly damage salmon reproduction that takes place during the fall. “They want them for the spawn (to use for bait), but they wind up leaving (the fish) there to die.” Lauzon wants to alert the public and get more action, possibly, from authorities to prevent the illegal activities and/or nab the culprits. He said the current bylaw enforcement from the city may not be sufficient, as the enforcement officers finish their shifts at 4:30 p.m. More....

Ecojustice, Ontario Nature and the Wildlands League have launched a lawsuit against the Ontario government protesting a lengthy set of exemptions given to businesses under Regulation 242/08 of the Endangered Species Act. The industries that received exemptions include agriculture, forestry, energy transmission, housing, oil and gas pipelines, mineral exploration, mine development, transit and wastewater management companies.� For example, bobolinks and meadowlarks are musical birds in terrible trouble, precisely because of the frequent destruction of their habitat by agriculture. Haying times that are best for farmers are often the times most destructive for bobolinks and meadowlarks. Since July 1, 2013, farmers have been freely permitted to kill, harm or harass these birds, and to destroy their habitat, in the course of any agricultural operation. Good news for farmers, I presume; very bad news for meadowlarks and bobolinks. To win this legal challenge, Ecojustice will have to persuade the courts that governments cannot make policy decisions, for political and economic reasons, that increase the danger to endangered species that they said they would protect. Is this the type of decision that courts will prevent politicians from making? �And if so, should they?

The Ontario government presumably decided to weaken the Endangered Species Act in order to increase its chances of surviving the next election. It is already facing substantial anger in many rural areas over the Green Energy Act. If Tim Hudak's Conservatives were to win the next election, they are certainly no friends of the Endangered Species Act; what would happen to the Act and its regulations then? This lawsuit is an honourable attempts by good people to do the right thing against long odds, and to stand against the long slide of environmental destruction. I admire them, and I support them. But would judges make better decisions on these types of public interest and policy questions than governments? Here is Ecojustice's press release: More....

Two key criticisms of the caribou conservation plan will be addressed by the Ontario Tories’ revamping of Endangered Species Act, says the party’s natural resources critic. MPP Laurie Scott (PC – Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock) told The Daily Press Thursday the Progressive Conservatives will unveil a natural resources/northern development platform in Thunder Bay on Monday which outlines promised changes to the ESA. Scott said the Tories would make it mandatory to consider the socio-economic impacts of any recommendations made under the ESA before its implementation. “Right now the legislation has it that the minister may consider socio-economic factors. We’re saying it must consider the socio-economic factors,” said Scott. The Tories would also require that any scientific analysis used to determine recommendations would have to be posted publicly to the Environmental Registry to allow stakeholders to provide input. While these changes would apply to the ESA as a whole, they also respond to key concerns raised by organizations like the Ontario Forest Industries Association about lack of peer-reviewed science and absence of any consideration of socio-economic impact in the caribou conservation plan. Scott said it is not only forestry that is being impacted by the ESA. More....

Ontario will review laws governing exotic pets owned within the province. Currently, the responsibility for dealing with exotic animals falls to individual municipalities, which each have their own bylaws and enforcement. Tuesday, the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, and Ministry Natural Resources announced they would form a working group "to examine the current structure and whether any changes need to be made."Last week, a 45-kilogram African rock python, which had escaped from its glass enclosure in an apartment above Reptile Ocean in Campbellton, N.B., killed Noah Barthe, 4, and his six-year-old brother, Connor in their sleep. "The recent events in New Brunswick have touched many Ontario families who need to know that the rules are in place to help avoid such tragedies in our own province," the trio of Ontario ministries said in a joint statement issued Tuesday morning. The Ontario government will seek input from what it called key stakeholders, including municipalities, and report back this fall with options for moving forward. "The safety and well-being of all Ontarians is of greatest importance," the joint statement said. Across Canada, regulations governing exotic pets vary widely, and animal welfare groups have long argued for stronger regulations. More....

The deaths of two young New Brunswick brothers, believed to have been killed by a python, have renewed the focus on the patchwork of regulations governing exotic pets in Canada. In the process, animal welfare groups and the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies are again calling for stronger provincial laws to limit or ban the import and sale of exotic species. In this particular case, the African rock python — the kind of giant snake the RCMP identified as responsible for the deaths of Noah Barthe, 4 1/2, and Connor Barthe, 6 — is not permitted in New Brunswick unless an exemption to an existing provincial ban has been granted. On Tuesday, the director of communications for N.B.'s Department of Natural Resources said that the only exceptions granted would be for accredited zoos, not for someone to keep an illegal exotic animal as a pet.Across Canada, regulations governing exotic pets vary widely, and animal welfare groups, which have long argued for stronger regulations, are again lamenting the current legal state of affairs. "It's a bit of a mess," says Rob Laidlaw, the executive director of Zoocheck Canada."There's a lot of exotics that come in, many of them the regular pet trade stock, that are for all intents and purposes completely unregulated." More....

With the exception of sushi aficionados devouring unagi in rolls of avocado, rice, and a dab of wasabi, American eels do not get a lot of love today. Once a dietary mainstay of native peoples and early colonists, these nutritious animals have been devastated over the centuries by growing fishing pressure and the construction of dams along rivers where they once swam in abundance. Although a petition to add the American eel to the U.S. endangered species list was denied in 2007, a second petition will be considered in 2015. In the meantime, fishery managers can take critical steps to secure a better future for what many consider the most mysterious fish in the sea.American eels lead a singular existence of sweeping geographies. Spawned deep in the Sargasso Sea—a two million-square mile becalmed region of the Atlantic between the Azores and West Indies—their larvae hitch a hemispheric ride for half a year on the Gulf Stream as they transform into ‘glass eels.’

Each spring, millions of these transparent, four-inch-long baby eels exit the Atlantic to enter estuaries and rivers from Greenland to northern South America. Once in fresh water they darken, drive upstream, and spend the next decade or two maturing, until the spawning imperative stirs them to migrate thousands of miles back to the Sargasso, where they reproduce just once and die.

For millions of years this unique life cycle was wildly successful. In the 1800’s, eels that had migrated up the St. Lawrence River and into Lake Ontario aggregated at the foot of Niagara Falls. Nineteenth-century naturalists commented that “hundreds of wagonloads . . . would hardly be considered excessive by those who have visited the spot.” More....

Animal-welfare and public-safety advocates said Tuesday a python attack that killed two boys in New Brunswick highlights the need for lawmakers to address the mishmash of municipal and provincial regulations governing exotic-pet ownership.A report commissioned last year by the Public Health Agency of Canada found that there were “significant gaps” in the ability of government to identify and respond to risks posed by exotic animals and that there was “no mechanism to prioritize” a regulatory response, according to a summary of its findings.Only when tragedies strike do these gaps ever get any attention, report co-author Patricia Farnese, a professor of agriculture and wildlife law at the University of Saskatchewan, said Tuesday.“It is hit and miss in terms of how pro-active jurisdictions are in terms of who can own exotic pets,” she said.“We need to decide if we want people to own things that have a capacity to escape and kill. We need to have this discussion.”RCMP Sgt. Alain Tremblay told reporters at a news conference Tuesday that a large African rock python had escaped from a glass cage in an apartment above the Reptile Ocean store in Campbellton, N.B., and made its way through a ventilation system into the room where brothers Noah Barthe, 4, and Connor Barthe, 6, were sleeping. More....

When I tell you that my pet Max is stubborn and hilarious, you’ll probably assume I’m talking about a cat or a dog, possibly even a bunny rabbit. But what if Max weren’t a cat or a dog? What if, instead of being an elderly Wheaten terrier who likes to play ball-in-cup, Max were a crocodile, a wallaby or a tarantula? Would you think I was crazy?

These days, fashionable pet people carry Chihuahuas in their purses and feed them organic canine cookies, and the rest of us might at worst roll our eyes. But the man who feeds fresh meat to a Siberian tiger in his backyard is considered a redneck maniac.No figures exist for the number of exotic pets currently in Canada, but rest assured, they’re out there by the nest-full, and they could be living next door.Toronto residents will never forget the six-foot-long cobra who escaped its enclosure in a west-end home in 2007. We all remember that poor woman who was killed by one of her fiancé’s tigers near 100 Mile House, B.C. And for pure tragic irony, no incident can rival the fatal mauling of Norman Buwalda in 2010 by one of his Siberian tigers. Mr. Buwalda happened to be the chairman of the Canadian Exotic Animal Owners’ Association, and had fought for years to keep his cats despite his neighbours’ repeated complaints.More recently, Darwin the IKEA monkey has become the subject of a sensational custody battle, while the German government has levied a $1,500 fine on Justin Bieber for trying to smuggle his pet capuchin monkey into the country (where he then abandoned it). Celebrities have long shown a predilection for exotic pets, from Michael Jackson’s chimp named Bubbles to Nicolas Cage’s octopus to Leonardo DiCaprio’s gigantic tortoise. More....

Reptile owners, handlers and some former PetSmart employees say they are shocked by how the animals are cared for at large pet stores, saying they have seen obvious signs of malnourishment and that many of the prospective pets are in need of medical attention.

Once considered rare and exotic, lizards and snakes are now widely available through internet sites, trade shows and pet stores. Joel Monfront of Ottawa owns a bearded dragon and calls it an affectionate pet. "I love them, they are very nice and calm, and you can cuddle with them, they are surprisingly a nice pet," said Monfront. But he and other people who met at a backyard get-together for Ottawa reptile owners in July said they've seen lizards, snakes and turtles in poor condition at pet stores.Monfront said he went to the PetSmart outlet in the west-end Ottawa neighbourhood of Kanata earlier this summer to try to rescue a baby lizard. "He was sitting in a pool of water and his head was dipping up and down below the surface, and I told my wife if we don't buy him he's going to die," said Monfront.

"We bought him but sadly he still died that very night, the very night we brought him home," he said. More....

A Windsor man has been arrested at the Ambassador Bridge after allegedly trying to smuggle more than 70 live turtles and tortoises into Canada. The Canada Border Services Agency said Tuesday the arrest and seizure was made in the late afternoon of July 6 after the 22-year-old was directed to secondary inspection.While searching the vehicle, border services officers discovered two boxes containing 76 live turtles and tortoises, worth more than $6,000, hidden in a compartment normally used for stowing seats.Xin Hong Tong faces charges under the Customs Act of nonreporting, making false statements and attempting to evade payment of duties and taxes. He was released but his next appearance is Aug. 12 in Ontario court.Environment Canada enforcement officers took custody of the reptiles. More charges are expected under the Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act.Environment Canada did not identify the species, pending further investigation, but the federal government agency will care for the animals until the court case is settled.If the turtles and tortoises are forfeited, Environment Canada could find homes for the reptiles in zoos or other suitable facilities."Reptile smuggling is not uncommon in Canada," Environment Canada spokesman Mark Johnson said in an email. "It ranges from the illegal import of one specimen to be used as a pet, to multi-specimen and species commercial-size imports numbering in the thousands. More....

Canadian border agents were likely shell-shocked.A 22-year-old Windsor man crossing into Canada from Detroit on July 6 via the Ambassador Bridge was stopped for a secondary inspection. In his vehicle, hidden in a storage compartment for seats, officers discovered 76 live turtles and tortoises.Border service officers arrested Xin Hong Tong, who is charged with smuggling, failure to report the animals, making false statements and attempting to evade payment of duties and taxes.The arrest highlights the lucrative, illicit world of trafficking exotic animals, their parts or their products. The U.S. is second only to China as a consumer of the illegal items, and the worldwide black-market trade is in the billions of dollars, according to Ed Grace, deputy director of law enforcement for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.The Windsor arrest came five days after President Barack Obama issued an executive order to enhance coordination of U.S. efforts to combat wildlife trafficking and assist foreign governments in combating it and related organized crime.Canadian officials did not release all the types of turtles recovered in the stop, but placed their value at more than $6,000 in U.S. funds. The seizure included several marginated tortoises, which originate from an area near Greece and Albania and require certification of captive breeding before sale under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, an international antismuggling treaty.Grace noted that turtles can be smuggled as food items or, more commonly, for the pet trade. More....

The Ministry of Natural Resources is asking the public to be on the lookout for people behaving suspiciously around area ponds and wetlands.

The ministry has received reports in recent weeks of people in the local area helping themselves to turtles in the wild. The reports are disturbing because poaching of this sort can be devastating to species-at-risk. “We are speculating as to why they are taking them,” Emmilia Kuisma, a district strategic officer with the MNR in Aylmer, said Tuesday. “It’s either for the pet trade or the food trade.” The unregulated removal of turtles is a problem because the animals do not breed easily. “It can take up to 25 years for turtles to reach reproductive maturity,” Kuisma said. “Removing even a few can have significant environmental impacts.” Conservationists in recent years have successfully raised the alarm about reptile mortality in the Long Point-Port Rowan area. The 3.4-kilometre Long Point Causeway linking the two communities was identified several years ago as a primary killing ground in North America for snakes, turtles and frogs. Trouble arises when they attempt to make the trip between Long Point Bay and the Big Creek Marsh. Eco-passages have since been installed beneath the causeway, allowing wildlife to migrate back and forth away from the traffic hazard.Unfortunately, all this consciousness-raising may have flagged the Long Point area as a prime hunting ground for poachers from outside the area. More....

And everyone left with an elephant. Putting some tusk in one’s swag was a function held at the Shangri-La in Toronto Tuesday to properly launch the Eric S. Margolis Family Foundation, focused on issues of animal welfare. You get an elephant! You get an elephant! And you get an elephant! No, Oprah did not pop by to instruct everyone to look under their chairs for a gift box, but it was close to the next best thing: Dana Margolis, the wife of dashing foreign affairs-expert/vitamins manufacturer Eric, informed everybody in the room, at a certain juncture, that they were all being gifted with a floppy-eared foster-baby of their own for one year. A chorus of oohs went up around me, with Kristin Davis — yes, Charlotte from Sex and the City — giving the announcement a particularly audible two-thumbs-up. “That’s awesome!” she rang out from her seat. (Ever the cheerleader and adventuress, Kristin — an ambassador for the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust — had just spoken to us about her own experiences with the cause, having travelled to Africa many times, and trekked into the wilds to help save many an orphan elephant — one time, as she informed me later, with a guide named Elvis!)....

University and Richmond is no where near the Maasai Mara, and the cocktails going around did arouse memories of Radical Chic, in the indubitable spirit of Tom Wolfe, but the recoil was sincere when David Sheldrick himself showed us before-and-after photos. Of elephants. Being hunted. With the demand for ivory on the up, as many know — driven by demands by the new rich in China — the massacre of elephants has reached epic levels, with tens of thousands of the animals slaughtered each year for their tusks. An accompanying announcement then came that the Margolis Foundation would be sponsoring four new anti-poaching teams in Africa, in partnership with the Sheldrick group. A “right to freedom from pain,” is how Eric, the founder of Jamieson Vitamins, personally phrased it, putting a fine point on his mission. And then — putting an even finer point on things, in a Gandhi-style change-within manner — he pointed out that his home is a pretty full house these days, what with three dogs and three cats currently in residence. More....

When a leading environmental group resigns in protest from a government panel working on changes to Ontario’s Endangered Species Act, it’s clear that the woodland caribou and Blanding’s turtles are getting the short end of the stick.Concerns from the Wildlands League were confirmed last week when the Ministry of Natural Resources posted amendments to the act that was once considered the gold standard in North American species protection. By now it’s obvious that Ontario’s pledge to save dozens of creatures on their last legs was merely a faux-green promise, as the ministry deals with funding cuts and industry demands. As Wildlands executive director Janet Sumner succinctly states, “Even a great law can be castrated.” Environmentalists are right to be angry. They lost a hard-fought battle, but must continue to fight on behalf of dying species — even if it involves the legal action that some are contemplating. Unless Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government has a rapid change of heart, a battle in the courtroom may be the only option. It’s a long shot, but worth the effort. After all, the original 2007 act was touted by the Liberals and environmentalists as leading-edge legislation that created a strong buffer between industry and at-risk wildlife. It demanded companies “improve” the circumstances of declining species. But now, the sweeping changes will require many industries — including forestry, exploratory mining, renewable energy and hydro — merely to “minimize” their harm to those deemed at-risk. That’s a far cry from the original protections. More....

Ontario is simplifying rules for landowners, municipalities and businesses under its Endangered Species Act (ESA), while "maintaining its place as a North American leader in species protection."

But the province is coming under fire from both sides for its moves. On July 1, 65 more species will benefit from habitat protection. Ontario protects about 150 threatened and endangered species, including polar bear, chimney swift, butternut and wolverine. That has sparked worries by industry and local governments, including Renfrew County council, that it could place too many restrictions on development and harvesting of resources.

In conjunction with expanding the number of protected species, the province will streamline its approach to species at risk protection by implementing standardized rules and an online registry for certain low-risk activities. That has caused environmentalists to express alarm that the government is shying away from its promises in this area.

The changes include:  making it easier for volunteers and researchers to undertake projects that protect endangered species,  simplifying requirements for municipalities to carry out activities that protect human health and safety, such as road repairs,  a time-limited transition provision that will allow projects currently in development to continue while mitigating adverse effects on endangered species,  harmonizing requirements under the Endangered Species Act and Crown Forest Sustainability Act to preserve protection while avoiding overlap. The existing approval process remains for all other activities.

The province will continue to ensure compliance through education and outreach, as well as monitoring, auditing and enforcement.

The changes, including "sweeping exemptions for industry," have caused some groups to complain the government has "gutted" the law protecting threatened wildlife. More....